What about “About”?

Is there are more under-sung hero on the webcomics home page than the About page? In one, simple file, it allows us webcartoonists to achieve something that no previous cartoonists were able to efficiently do: Quickly indoctrinate a new reader. Newspaper comic strips have to be ruthlessly standalone. Every day they have to be completely accessible to a new reader. While the same is somewhat true for the daily webcartoonist, we have an ace in the hole. The About page, when organized and presented well, takes that moderately interested onlooker and prepares her to become a new reader. It’s easy to become jaded with the About page. It’s as obligatory as the copyright at the bottom of the page. But with that familiarity comes a degree of contempt. Many webcartoonists aren’t using them to their full potential. So let’s look at some aspects of About pages that work: